Siberia | Tourism, recreation | Technology & innovation

Siberians offer new IT service for tourists who want to enjoy Russia

2 Apr '15

A resident of the KRITBI innovation business incubator in Krasnoyarsk, in Siberia, has come up with a new IT project called “TourBazaar,” enabling users to book Russian hotels, tourist and recreation centers online, the KRITBI website announced.

The TourBazaar developers have demonstrated a fairly unorthodox approach to organizing a service in this highly competitive market segment. For example, TourBazaar collects data on vacant rooms to form auction lots, which are actual tours to Russian hotels and other tourist sites. Each toup is available for a specific number of days. To buy a tour one is asked to participate in an auction with a starting price of a symbolic 1 ruble per lot.

The marketing component plays a crucial role in the project. Social networks are the prime vehicle for it. A user can’t participate in an auction until information about a specific auction lot was re-posted on his social network page and the user made his first bet. One with a maximum bet by the time the auction is over is pronounced the winner.

“The project has been alive for four months now. The TourBazaar team comprises ten people, and the endeavor covers 15 regions. More than 60,000 people have used the services of our portal so fat. We estimate that by the end of this spring our net profit will exceed a million rubles [just over $17,000],” said Andrei Shevelyov, the project leader.

According to KRITBI, the project has been personally shown to President Vladimir Putin of Russia and “received his support.”